Phil the Fear!

Philip Glenister does battle with demons in his first ever US TV role

After hitting the big 5-0 three years ago, Philip Glenister doubted he’d ever get the chance to crack America. Then, out of the blue, a call came from a casting director working on a new US series called Outcast, from the creator of The Walking Dead. “I thought it might have passed me by and maybe I was a bit old,” admits the Life on Mars star, 53. “I have a manager out there, but I hadn’t actively pursued it because I didn’t really want to relocate. But then I saw the likes of Ray Winstone doing well and I thought: ‘If there’s an opportunity for me, it might come along.’

“This casting director had seen some of my work in Britain and told me she had always had me in mind for something. So I filmed an audition in my living room. My wife [actress Beth Goddard] directed me: ‘Stand there!’ We sent it to the States, then I flew to LA to go over the scenes and they came back 24 hours later to say they would love me to do it.”Indeed, the dad of two admits he is actually grateful that any major opportunities didn’t come his way when he was younger. “I think you can handle it more when you’re older,” he reasons. “All the pretty boys over there are ten-a-penny, crowding into audition rooms with their perfect teeth and spending all their time in the gym drinking f***ing juice. The one thing Americans seem to respond to with Brits is the character actors, which is what I am. They don’t’ seem to have as many of them over there.”

Based on a comic book series by The Walking Dead creator, Robert Kirkman, Outcast stars Philip as southern preacher Reverend Anderson, who tries to rid a young man of evil spirits.

“My family came to the set in South Carolina, and I warned them beforehand: ‘Look, I am going to be staying in the American accent because it’s just easier for me to do’,” Philip explains. “My driver Dougie, who took me to set everyday, is from South Carolina, and we spoke in the accent on the way to work every morning. He was Damian Lewis’ driver on Homeland and Damian did the same thing.”

Despite the obvious pressure for the series to match the success of The Walking Dead, which is now the most successful show in US cable-TV history, Philip downplays any comparisons. “To be honest, I am not big on this genre really,” he says. “I knew of The Walking Dead, but ours is slightly more realistic.”

And even if the show – and Philip’s US career – really takes off, he vows to remain in the UK. “I won’t relocate, I’ll just fly back and forth,” he explains. “These things are always pretty negotiable, I can just say: ‘write me out of an episode or two would ya, I need to go home for a bit because I miss the family.’ London will always be my home and I won’t uproot my family. My daughters [Millie, 14 and Charlotte, 11] are settled in school here. I want to be able to flit between the two because I still really enjoy working in Britain.”

As much as he loves UK drama, however, he doesn’t think his bigoted cop Gene Hunt from Life on Mars would make it onto TV today. “I’m not sure something like Life on Mars would even get commissioned these days,” says Philip. “I think Gene might be too controversial, especially in the light of what’s going on with UKIP and immigration. A mainstream show with a character who is a bit of a dinosaur like that would make TV commissioners doubly wary.”

While he is reflecting, he admits he is still annoyed about the way his Sky 1 drama, Mad Dogs concluded in 2013 after four series. “I hated that bloody ending,” Philip says of the plot, which saw the souls of the four leads plunge off a bridge in a surreal sequence. “It was overly complex; we tried to be too clever. People still say to me: ‘I loved Mad Dogs, but what the f*** was that ending all about?’”

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